low-SES Students Research Articles

The elite exclusion: stratified access and production during the Chinese higher education expansion.

This paper presents new evidence on how enrollment expansion affects higher education access and production with a focus on social inequality and institutional stratification. From 1999 to 2012, the world’s largest higher education expansion happened in China that annual college enrollment dramatically increased from 1,083,600 to 6,888,300. We evaluate this exogenous, unprecedented policy using nationally representative student-level survey data and newly available confidential institution-level data. Enrollment expansion, which reduced per-student resources, negatively impacted college quality as measured by value-added on graduates’ employment and earnings. The inequality in access between high- and low-SES students and the stratified production between college institutional tiers persisted during expansion.

Out of place: Socioeconomic status, use of public space, and belonging in higher education.

Those from low socioeconomic status (SES) often lack access to public space and, when they have access, they are often discouraged from using public space. Scholars from human geography and related fields have argued that this limits engagement in civic life and undermines sense of belonging in one's community. In the present work, we consider whether lower-SES students face this predicament in higher education, particularly at elite public institutions. Across four studies, we find that, compared with higher-SES students, lower-SES students use public space on campus less-iconic public space in particular-and this can mediate the relationship between SES and sense of belonging at the University. We also find that experimentally increasing students' use of public space can reduce and even close SES gaps in felt belonging. Taken together, the present studies suggest that use of public space matters for belonging and for understanding gaps in belonging. This work contributes to our understanding of SES disparities in higher education. More generally, it illustrates the importance of public space. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

A laptop for every child? The impact of technology on human capital formation

Children's learning environments are becoming increasingly technologically advanced. Many schools today provide a personal computer to each pupil for use both in the classroom and at home. We investigate how such 1:1-programs affect school performance in lower secondary school. By surveying schools in 26 Swedish municipalities regarding the implementation of 1:1-programs and combining this information with rich administrative data, we estimate the impact on educational outcomes using a difference-in-differences design. We find no effect on average performance on standardized tests in mathematics or language, nor on upper secondary school enrollment. However, 1:1-initiatives seem to increase inequality by worsening the performance among low-SES students.

Social Class and Parental Involvement in Transition Activities During High School

ABSTRACT This research examines the relationship between socioeconomic status and parental involvement in transition-to-college and transition-to-work activities using data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009. Results from Poisson regression models show that socioeconomic status is positively associated with parental involvement in transition-to-college and transition-to-work activities. Further, logistic regression models show that parental involvement in transition activities is associated with a greater likelihood of college enrollment but not labor market entry after high school. Lastly, average marginal effects show that all socioeconomic groups benefit from parental involvement, but low SES students gain the most. This study provides further understanding of social stratification in educational outcomes and has implications for the study of parental involvement, college enrollment, and intergenerational mobility.

Failing to level the playing field: student discourses on graduate employability

ABSTRACT Despite decades of efforts to promote social mobility, studying for higher education maintains or even exacerbates social inequalities. Interventions, including employability classes and careers advice and guidance, have not succeeded in ‘levelling the playing field’ for students. To understand why inequalities persist despite these efforts, it is important to understand how students from different backgrounds acquire and apply various forms of capital. The graduate capital model is used in this article to explore how five dimensions of capital (human, social, cultural, identity and psychological dimensions) interact, drawing on data from interviews with high and low socio-economic status (SES) university students. While in general lower-SES students found employability classes helpful in equipping them with the human capital required in order to succeed on today’s graduate labour market, in contrast to their high-SES peers they struggled to understand the importance of and mobilise this and other forms of capital promoted in those classes. The crucial forms of capital that seem to interact with all other capitals are social and psychological. Universities therefore need to find a way to help low-SES students build and apply these forms of capital and alleviate barriers to their mobilisation.

College Choice, Interrupted: Understanding the Choice Processes of Hurricane-Affected Puerto Rican Students in Florida

ABSTRACT After Hurricane María, approximately 3,500 students enrolled in on Florida’s school district from Puerto Rico. Displaced Puerto Rican high schoolers incurred the transitional costs of forced migration at a time in their educational trajectories when they are formulating their postsecondary plans. While student mobility is not uncommon, prevailing college choice models do not account for changes in context. This embedded case study leverages 87 interviews across district stakeholders, including 10 high schoolers to examine whether and how changes in educational contexts (state policy, postsecondary landscape, and schools) influenced changes in postsecondary expectations through the lens of expectancy-value theory. First, Florida’s policy context (as an English-only state with English-only testing) created a challenging environment for students to acquire diplomas, which reduced students’ expectations for success. Second, the enrollment patterns and institutional costs were vastly different between Puerto Rico and Florida; Florida counselors were unprepared to help students consider postsecondary options in Puerto Rico and emphasized utility and low cost of community college. Third, class mattered, as students from higher socio-economic backgrounds were less likely to change their educational expectations, relative to the downward shifts in expectations of low-SES students. We close with implications for college guidance, policy, and research.

Changes in the Performance of Students in Charter and District Sectors of U. S. Education: An Analysis of Nationwide Trends

ABSTRACT We use a quadratic equation to estimate trends in cohort performances in the charter and district sectors on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 4th and 8th grade between 2005 and 2017. Data consist of over four million test observations of nationally representative samples of students on seven separate math and reading tests. We estimate unadjusted trends as well as trends adjusted for changes in the demographic composition of the two sectors. Compared to district cohorts, we find steeper upward trends in mean charter performance. Larger sector differentials are observed for African Americans, low SES students, and for students in the Northeast. No significant trend differences are observed for Hispanic and Asian Americans, suburban students and for students in the West. Since students in the two sectors may differ in relevant ways for reasons unrelated to demographic characteristics, inferences about changes in school production factors remain uncertain.

Non-Cognitive skills and the growing achievement Gap⋆

In this study, I apply a developmental perspective to examine the relationship between non-cognitive skills and the growing SES achievement gap over one’s early life course. Using data from Early Childhood Longitudinal Program (ECLS-K), I investigate whether and to what extent non-cognitive skills account for the growing achievement inequality by mediating SES’s effects on learning from kindergarten to fifth grade. Specifically, I guide my analyses by testing the following hypotheses: (1) children’s non-cognitive skills are stratified by family SES consistently from kindergarten to fifth grade; (2) children’s non-cognitive skills affect learning positively throughout early education years. The results support my hypotheses, suggesting that continuous SES differences in non-cognitive skills can magnify the SES achievement difference during kindergarten and fifth grade, and around 20% of the accumulated achievement difference between high- and low-SES students in reading and math ability is attributable to differences in their non-cognitive skills.

Teacher Perceptions of Learning Motivation and Classroom Behavior: The Role of Student Characteristics

The present study investigates whether teacher perceptions of students’ cognitive skills, their learning motivation, and their classroom behavior differ according to students’ socioeconomic status, immigrant background, and gender. Data from N = 4746 German fourth graders and data from their parents and teachers were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Controlling for student achievement as measured in a standardized achievement test and student motivation as measured by student and parent reports, we found that teachers overestimated the cognitive skills of high-SES students and girls in comparison to those of low-SES students and boys. Similarly, teachers perceived high-SES students, students who are not from an immigrant background, and girls as having a higher learning motivation and as having more cognitive skills. Finally, we found that teachers’ perceptions of students’ learning motivation and classroom behavior mediated the relationship between student characteristics and cognitive skills as perceived by the teacher.

Socioeconomic Inequality in Decoding Instructions and Demonstrating Knowledge

Cultural capital may contribute to socioeconomic achievement gaps by shaping how students engage with authority in schools. However, social class shapes academic skills and know-how in other ways. Through classroom observations and interviews with first graders, their parents, and teachers, I find that higher-SES students decode teachers’ inexplicit academic instructions and demonstrate academic knowledge more ably, confidently, and frequently than lower-SES students. Lower-SES students demonstrate procedural knowledge (i.e. knowledge of classroom rules) as much as academic knowledge to gain attention and praise from teachers. These patterns are primarily connected to higher-SES parents teaching their children the academic problem solving script teachers expect and reward, whereas lower-SES parents emphasizing rule following as the path to academic achievement. Teachers also give less explicit instruction for academic tasks compared to classroom procedure. Results from this study highlight additional forms of cultural capital and additional ways that social class reproduces these inequalities.

Delayed Benefits: Effects of California School District Bond Elections on Achievement by Socioeconomic Status

Contradictory evidence of the relationship between education funding and student achievement could reflect heterogeneous effects by revenue source or student characteristics. This study examines potential heterogeneous effects of a particular type of local revenue—bond funds for capital investments—on achievement by socioeconomic status. Comparing California school districts within a narrow window on either side of the cutoff of voter support required to pass a general obligation bond measure, I use dynamic regression discontinuity models to estimate effects of passing a bond on academic achievement among low- and high-socioeconomic-status (SES) students. Results consistently suggest that passing a bond increases achievement among low- but not high-SES students. However, these benefits for low-SES students are delayed and emerge six years after an election. Effects are larger in low-income districts and in small districts, where benefits of capital investments are experienced by a larger proportion of students.

Cultural capital, habitus and reading futures: middle-class adolescent students’ cultivation of reading dispositions in Singapore

The acquisition of cultural capital can only be understood in the light of the formation of habitus, including the socialisation process, and in the context of the field in which any such capital has value. Yet, the relation between cultural capital and habitus is seldom discussed in research. Drawing on the data from focus groups with 96 students and a survey of 5,779 students from six Singapore secondary schools, we analyze how reading as a form of cultural capital is distributed among High-SES, Mid-SES and Low-SES students in Singapore. We show how middle-class practices of intensive immersion in school-valued reading practices is a form of habitus that prepare some students better than others for engaged reading. The findings highlight how reading as a form of cultural capital is operationalized through students’ familial habitus and argues that making visible familial habitus provides insights for transforming institutional habitus for students’ reading futures.

How the rich get richer: affluence cues at universities increase the social class achievement gap

Past research on socioeconomic status (SES) and test performance in higher education has highlighted the factors that depress performance among students from low-SES backgrounds. We complement this work by focusing on how cues of affluence and prestige in the physical environments of elite universities may boost performance among students from high-SES backgrounds, thereby exacerbating the existing performance gap between high and low-SES students. We randomly assigned 122 high-SES and 100 low-SES students to take a standardized test in an environment with affluence cues or one without affluence cues. We found a significant interaction between student-SES and testing environment, such that students from high-SES backgrounds outperformed students from low-SES backgrounds to a greater extent when affluence cues were present than when they were absent. These findings suggest that the physical environments of elite universities can contribute to the achievement gap between high and low-SES students. Theoretical and educational policy implications are discussed.

Social Class, Ingroup–Outgroup Comparison, and Citizen Evaluations: Is User Satisfaction Linked to Outcome Disparities?

Research on citizen satisfaction has emphasized the role of service quality (including expectations for quality) in shaping citizens’ evaluations of public services. This article considers an understudied but important aspect of public service delivery—equity—and investigates how disparities in service outcomes between disadvantaged and advantaged groups affect citizens’ evaluations of service providers. This study also examines whether citizens with different socioeconomic status (SES) have different perceptions toward the outcome disparities. Using individual-level data from secondary schools, we find that service users appear to recognize and care about a performance gap among social strata. Even when a student’s individual outcome is held constant, satisfaction varies with the school-level performance gap between high-SES and low-SES students. This finding suggests that service users are concerned about not just their outcomes but also the relative positioning of outcomes for those of their own social group compared with other groups.

Tények és tévhitek a hátrányos helyzetről egy új kutatás tükrében

Feltáró jellegű kutatásunkat Hajdú-Bihar megye 11 hátrányos helyzetű településén/térségében végeztük olyan állami fenntartású általános iskolákban, ahol magas (12-80%) a hátrányos helyzetű tanulók aránya. Vizsgáltuk a tanulók közérzetét és motivációját, ezek kapcsolatát egymással és a szocioökonómiai háttérrel az egyének és az iskolák szintjén. A közérzetet a hangulat, a stressz skáláival, valamint az iskolához való érzelmi viszonyulás, a tanulással és a közösséggel szembeni attitűdökkel határoztuk meg. A motivációt 9 dimenzió által kirajzolt mintázatok alapján vizsgáltuk. Jelen munkánkban 771 tanuló online válaszait értékeltük ki. Eredmények. A HBSC 2014 adataihoz képest a megkérdezett diákok kevésbé szeretik az iskolájukat, jobban nyomasztják őket az iskolai feladatok, és kevésbé érzik a tanárok odafordulását; viszont sokkal kedvezőbben élik meg osztályuk közösségét. Klíma: A felső tagozatosok közül az ötödikesek és a jobb tanulók élik meg pozitívabban az iskolai klímát. A Tanulási klíma és az Iskolához való érzelmi viszonyulás korrelációja viszonylag magas (r=0,426, p<0,001). Motiváció: A lányok és a jobb tanulók kevésbé versengőek és inkább szociálisan motiváltak. A szociális háttér alig differenciálja a motivációs profilt. A közérzet változói alapján klaszteranalízissel nyert három csoport – Iskolabarátok, Rosszul alkalmazkodók, Túlélők – motivációs mintázatában markáns különbségek mutatkoznak. Adataink megerősítik, hogy a motiváció tekintetében meghatározóbbak az iskolához kapcsolható attitűdök, mint a szociális háttér. Az iskolák szociális összetételének hatása: Az általunk vizsgált változók az iskolák szintjén nem mutattak szabályszerűséget a hátrányos helyzetű tanulók arányának függvényében. Fontos eredménynek tekintjük, hogy az iskolák rendkívül változatosak a tanulóik iskolához/tanuláshoz való viszonyuk, alapattitűdjük tekintetében; a hátrányos helyzetű tanulók aránya e tekintetben nem döntő faktor.

Students’ psychological well-being and its multilevel relationship with immigrant background, gender, socioeconomic status, achievement, and class size

ABSTRACTSchool situations trigger affective states that influence students’ achievement and well-being. In the present study, we investigated, on the basis of a sample of 26,470 high-school students and 1,472 classrooms, the relationship of individual characteristics (immigrant background, gender, socioeconomic status, and achievement) as well as classroom characteristics (group composition and size) with students’ feelings at school. The results showed that females, low achievers, immigrants, and low-SES students are more at risk of psychological distress at school, with gender and achievement being the most important factors. A doubly latent model analysis revealed that whereas individual socioeconomic status and achievement have a positive impact on students’ feelings, the effect of the two variables at the classroom level is negative. The impact of immigrant classroom composition seems to be limited to positive affect and dependent on students’ immigrant generation. Finally, students in smaller classrooms show more psychological well-being at school.

College expectations and choices: Explaining the gaps in college enrollment for high- and low-SES students in China

This study aims to better understand how college expectations influence college enrollment during the process of transition from high school to college, using a baseline and follow-up survey of high school students from Shaanxi Province in China. The findings show that students from low-SES families tended to have higher college expectations, whereas students from high-SES families were more likely to be accepted into college and more likely to attend college, even conditional on admission. We also found different patterns in college application behaviors between high- and low-SES students. Students from high-SES families were more likely to have valid college choices and aim for more selective colleges, whereas students from low-SES families tended to underestimate their academic performance.

Commitment: Predicting Persistence for Low-SES Students

Students with low socioeconomic status (SES) are more likely to leave college without a degree than students with high SES, although there are fewer low-SES students who persist to graduation. The most likely time for students to leave the University is after the first year. The purpose of this qualitative study of low-SES students, both retained and not retained, is to understand their first-year experience and the factors that led to the decision to persist or not. Unlike previous research, neither satisfaction nor obstacles such as finances, academic preparation, or social integration differentiated between students who persisted or not. The difference between those who persisted and those who did not was commitment as defined by the investment model. The committed students believed education was an investment in their future, and their future without a college degree was not an attractive alternative. They were motivated to persist.

Do Student Mindsets Differ by Socioeconomic Status and Explain Disparities in Academic Achievement in the United States?

Students from higher–socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds show a persistent advantage in academic outcomes over lower-SES students. It is possible that students’ beliefs about academic ability, or mindsets, play some role in contributing to these disparities. Data from a recent nationally representative sample of ninth-grade students in U.S. public schools provided evidence that higher SES was associated with fewer fixed beliefs about academic ability (a group difference of .22 standard deviations). Also, there was a negative association between a fixed mindset and grades that was similar regardless of a student’s SES. Finally, student mindsets were a significant but small factor in explaining the existing relationship between SES and achievement. Altogether, mindsets appear to be associated with socioeconomic circumstances and academic achievement; however, the vast majority of the existing socioeconomic achievement gap in the U.S. is likely driven by the root causes of inequality.

Understanding Dual Credit Programs: Perspectives from Faculty, Staff, and Administrators

ABSTRACT Research on dual credit (DC) programs highlights the benefits including enhanced post-secondary access, higher GPAs, lower remediation, increased persistence, and higher graduation rates. Most of this work focuses on students, analyzing local, state, and federal data. The purpose of this study is to present the perspectives of high school support staff, faculty, and administrators regarding student access to and utilization of DC programs. Findings indicate that despite programs to support low SES students, cost is still perceived as a significant barrier for low-SES students. In addition, there is an existing conflict between advanced placement (AP) and DC courses, and respondents discuss perceived issues of the academic and social development of students.